11-year-old Tramore native Freya Marsh has added the Gold Medal at the European MMA Championships to her list of international wins. The win also gives her the title of the ‘youngest Irish female’ to be awarded this gold medal.
The latest win took place on Saturday (February 15th 2025) at The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation 2025 IMMAF European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia and it was Freya’s debut International MMA competition outing, as she has previously only competed in Jiujitsu competitions.
Freya first became a two-time Gold European champion at just 10 years old. In 2024 she had an incredible year on the world platform, where she travelled to Florida, Sao Paolo, Lisbon and Abu Dhabi to compete in the four of the biggest and toughest jiu-jitsu competitions on the world stage where she also took home two Golds and two Silvers for Ireland and her club, Checkmat Waterford.
Freya says, “Every competition that we take time to travel to is a huge commitment, and I’m always determined to do my best, and I am thrilled with this win. This is my first Gold MMA medal, as all of my big competitions to date have been in Jiujitsu, so it’s fantastic to broaden my options for future competitions. I’ll celebrate with my family this week and head back into training for my next competition.”
A documentary crew JungleHouse, are making Freya the focus of a new documentary to capture Freya’s progress, and the premiere screening of the documentary is set to take place in Freya’s Waterford in early April.
Speaking of the win and Freya’s dedication to her sport, her dad who travelled to Serbia with Freya, Rob Marsh says, “Freya has incredible drive and fierce determination. She is dedicated to school like any other 11-year-old and also spends time with her friends and her sisters. But at the same time, she trains every day at a professional athlete level, managing Jiujitsu, strength and conditioning training, MMA, Boxing and Muay Thai. She certainly has her sights set on representing her country at every level.”
Freya is currently ranked as the number 1 yellow belt female in her weight division in the world. She is ranked number 3 of all female yellow belts in the world with IBJJF.
